Leadership expert, author to speak Friday at St. Kate's

"If we know who we are and what we stand for, we can lead with spirit," says Margaret Wheatley, a noted leadership expert and author who will speak at St. Catherine University on Friday, April 20.

The event -- co-sponsored by the Loyola Spirituality Center and the Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality -- will be held in Rauenhorst Ballroom, Coeur de Catherine, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Click here for registration information.

Wheatley has been engaged as a leadership speaker, writer and consultant since 1973. Her six books include Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time (2005), Perseverance (2010) and, her best-known work, Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (1992), which has been published in 18 languages.

"Margaret Wheatley is one of the most significant thought leaders alive today in the areas of new thinking about organizations and people," says Paula King, dean of the School of Business and Leadership at St. Kate's. "Her influence on organizational development, the importance of resilience and perseverance in difficult times, and new options for organizing both locally and globally has changed the way leaders and organizational theorists think about organizing."

A former Peace Corps volunteer, Wheatley has worked on all continents, earned a doctorate from Harvard in administration, planning and social policy, and taught at Brigham Young University and Cambridge College. But she praises her liberal arts education as laying the foundation for her work.

"No one discipline, institution or specialization can answer the questions that now confront us," Wheatley writes on her website. "We all must draw from many different perspectives to reweave the world."

The cost for Friday's program is $50. Books will be available for signing and purchase.